CANBERRA, May 15 -- The Australian vessel Ocean Shield with the damaged Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Bluefin-21, is currently en route to Dampier, Western Australia, to receive the transponder parts from the UK for repairing the submarine vehicle, the Joint Agency Coordination Center confirmed Thursday. "The journey is anticipated to take a number of days. At this stage, Ocean Shield is expected go alongside so engineers can make a full assessment of the transponder repairs,"the statement said.

After a short port visit, the Ocean Shield returned Wednesday to the vicinity of the acoustic signals acquired by the Towed Pinger Locator in April to continue the underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. But Bluefin-21 was recovered about two hours later Wednesday to investigate communications problems.

According to the JACC's latest statement on Thursday, Bluefin- 21 was damaged during the recovery but was able to be repaired expeditiously with spare parts on board the Ocean Shield. "Examination of the communications problem has established that a hardware defect exists in the transponder mounted on the Ocean Shield and that a defect may also exist in the transponder mounted on the Bluefin-21. This inhibits the ability of the two devices to communicate with each other,"the JACC explained. "As a consequence, spare parts for both defects will be dispatched from the United Kingdom. The parts are expected to arrive in Western Australia on Sunday,"the statement said.